SoThat Yong

Dada Life at Avalon Hollywood

Dada Life
Avalon Hollywood
October 16, 2012

Dada Life drew quite the crowd last night when they threw their free The Rules of Dada album release party at the iconic club Avalon in Hollywood. Tickets to this show sold out in less than 10 minutes and were almost as coveted as Ultra Music Festival pre-sales. Not only were we lucky enough to talk to Olle Cornéer and Stefan Engblom, the Swedish duo-- who met in Orange County while standing in a line at Disneyland--prior to the show, but we were also able to bear witness to their energetic two-hour set in typical Dada Land fashion with the rest of their raging fans.

"A lot of dance music producers do a lot of different kinds of songs incorporating slower songs, fast songs and maybe more vocals or instrumentals," says Cornéer when asked what inspired this album three years in the making. "We wanted to do the opposite - an album that is just a party with 11 bangers from start to finish." Known for their entertaining "live" sets, Dada Life throws large inflatable bananas and champagne bottles which have become staples at all of their shows as they splice in their bangers with their own original remixes of EDM hits. "The energy is so good in America and Canada right now," adds Engblom the other half of the duo. "People are really embracing dance music and EDM and we can really feel it on our current Dada Land tour."

See Also:
*Zedd Tells Us Why He Dislikes the Phrase "EDM"
*Nocturnal Wonderland: Our Recap From A to Z
*[Updated] Top Five Codes of Conduct For Opening DJs at EDM Shows

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50 Cent and Kanye West, mere weeks before their epic soundscan showdown.

See Also:

*Five Unexpected Cover Songs From the Insane Clown Posse

*Five Artists (Besides Lil Wayne) Who Think New York Sucks

*Kai: Street Artist Painted Kanye and Eminen How They Act--Like Medieval Kings

Believe it or not, at one point Kanye West was considered an underdog. Before we were watching the throne, before the critics heralded his albums as flawless and even before Jay Leno, of all people, had to give him a reality check following the Taylor Swift incident, West was seen as the little Chi-town engine that could. Everyone loves an underdog, especially when he goes one on one with the biggest bully on the playground. That's exactly what happened five years ago today when West and 50 Cent had a release date showdown on September 11th, 2007.

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​We'd love to tell you all about the plot twists contained in Long Beach band Bella Novela's forthcoming album, the Archeress--but our words will definitely fail us. It's probably better to let singer Jackie Ojeda handle the specifics in the interview below, but let it  be said, it's fucking ambitious. Building on the classic rock elements laid down in the band's last album Battle Lines, their latest effort features bigger vocal arrangements and a mind-bending narrative involving a zombie apocalypse, drifters, vampires and archery. More »

Brandon Ferguson

​Last night the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles hosted a panel discussion on the process of vinyl production as it pertains to small artists. Among the four panelists on stage at the Clive Davis Theatre was Infrasonic Sound owner/mastering engineer Pete Lyman, who was featured in my recent cover story on the resurgence of records in recent years. The discussion reinforced what people in the business have known for some time--that despite the recent increase in vinyl sales, it's still an indie band's game.

And the consensus at last night's discussion wasn't that any yuck with a garage band should start pressing platters; rather, the goal  was to give an idea of what goes into the process and what the options are. Rule number one: It ain't cheap. A quick estimate of the services from cutting the laquer, to pressing the product to manufacturing the jackets yielded a base total just north of $2,000.

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Christopher Victorio/OC Weekly

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Feb. 3, 2011
Fingerprints

Click here to see the photos!

There's not much on the walls, and all the merch that aren't CDs or vinyl are nowhere to be found, but if you squint long and hard enough, you can see that the new Fingerprints location near the intersection of Fourth Street and Long Beach Boulevard is going to be an improvement over the cramped quarters of its former Second Street abode.

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Santa Ana's multitasking Chris Alfaro, a.k.a. Free The Robots, is a busy man. Somehow finding time between co-running Orange County's beacon of all things hip the Crosby, he's written and produced one of the year's strongest local albums.

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Fans of ambient, indie rock tribe Set to Sea have been waiting a long time for the band to release their debut full-length, The Dark Has Found a Home in Me--a follow-up to The Last Solid Ground EP, released in April of 2009. You may remember them showing up in our Locals Only section last year. This video of their recording sessions last July shows just a slice of all the work that the Fullerton-based five piece squeezed into the final product. Finally, it's finished. More »

The Hype: Ten shows in one day? Yes, San Diego indie rockers the Soft Pack were crazy enough to jump in a bus and travel across Southern California playing free shows to promote their self-titled debut album on NYC-based Kemado Records. Their fourth stop of the 10 included a visit to Fingerprints record shop Saturday to bash out a quick performance augmented by a stripped-down set by recent Sub Pop signees and Long Beach locals, Avi Buffalo. 
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OK, so Taking Back Sunday are playing the Grove of Anaheim a week from today, June 3. Their new album, the appropriately titled New Again, comes out the day before. That doesn't really give you a lot of time to get to know all those new songs before the show. Bummer, right? Or is it? Well, helpfully enough, you can listen to the entire new record--their follow-up to 2006's major label debut Louder Now--on MySpace from now through Friday. Works out pretty nicely, doesn't it? (This is, of course, ignoring the fact that the album leaked to the usual dubious sources last week, but we know that Heard Mentality readers are absolutely an above board crowd.)

Lead single "Sink Into Me" is almost as catchy as "Make Damn Sure" (which, whether I like it or not, is still in my head three years later). The video's after the jump!

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HB/LB punks TSOL are releasing a new record. Sorta.

 

Last December, the group went into the studio to record its 16th album, Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Free Downloads on Hurley Records. The sessions were documented and can be found at the band's myspace page.

 

The tunes became available for download in January, but are getting a vinyl makeover thanks to DC Jam Records. The label says the album will be issued in limited edition colored vinyl and will hit the shelves sometime in September.